


A Moment's Shifting

by tattered_diary (stopmopingstarthoping)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Handcuffed Together, M/M, Multi, Spaceships, Uneasy Allies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 12:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17683913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stopmopingstarthoping/pseuds/tattered_diary
Summary: Jack finds himself in unfamiliar circumstances with familiar companions.





	A Moment's Shifting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trobadora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trobadora/gifts).



The floor shifts suddenly, and Jack’s eyes blink open. It’s dim, and his hands are behind his back. He really, _really_ hopes this is for a fun reason, but given the hard metal beneath him and the frigid, stale air, he figures it’s probably not. He feels an indignant shift behind him and realizes he’s pressed up against another person.

“Well, you’re not the Doctor.” He blinks, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the near-darkness. He’s pretty sure who the person behind him is, and she confirms it as soon as she opens her mouth.

“Very astute of you.” Missy snorts, and Jack’s suspicions check out.

They’re handcuffed together, and though he’d almost expected it, they don’t recoil from one another, and neither of them wiggle to create any distance to draw a line between them. Maybe they know it’s fruitless, perhaps they just know each other too well by now. Too much talking and fighting and outsmarting one another; they know trying to set some sort of artificial boundary simply isn’t worth the bother. Maybe it’s something else.

Still, it’s _her_ , and Jack’s worried on several fronts. He’s almost glad she’s restrained along with him - it removes several variables from the scenarios he’s begun to run in his mind, thinking through possibilities. He resorts to banter, playing for time.

“I mean, usually when I’m handcuffed there’s some sort of -”

“Oh save it,” she snaps, and her nose turns up in disdain. She’s not used to losing, this one, and it shows. She’s offended, really, at the very idea of being captured. He can tell she’s not sure how they’ve done it, and her sharp eyes dart around the room the same way his own had on waking.  

“So far, it’s already better than my time on the _Valiant_.” His easy charm carries the words off lightly, but there’s a bitter scrape in the tone too - he’s not forgotten any of it. Not a moment, and he doesn’t trust this one as far as he can throw her.

But that’s never stopped him from being attracted to someone before. He does shift then, exhaling in annoyance. Not with their predicament, no, but with _that_ particular thought.

The door cracks open then, and Jack’s relief at the pair of stern eyebrows glaring down at them is nearly palpable.

“Well, come on then.” He looks at Jack impatiently.

Jack looks back at the wrists clasped behind his back and shrugs, looking up and grinning.

“Oh come now. I haven’t met the pair of handcuffs that can hold you for more than a minute. You’re not even trying.”

“And you.” He directs this to Missy; arms folded, footsteps circling them before he squats down, screwdriver in hand. “How do I know you’re not the one who got us into all this in the first place?” He gestures at her, glowing green point bobbing in the dim light; Jack notices that behind his eyes is that careful assessment as always - calculating, running probabilities, just as he had done moments ago. Jack casts his gaze down and laughs at the familiarity of it all.

“Ugh, because I actually have an imagination? Trust me, if this were my doing we’d be significantly more or less comfortable than this. This is just boring. Back of a thirty-ninth century human slave ship.” Missy shakes her head at the lack of imagination.

Jack’s chin darts back toward his shoulder again, looking toward her voice. His assessment had been Sontaran, not human, but he’s close on the timing, apparently. If she’s right. She sits a little straighter but again, doesn’t pull away from him.

Jack looks up at the Doctor, and sees eyes clouded with disappointment. He stops the fiddling he’s doing with the sonic for a moment and lets it drop, staring into the middle distance and murmuring. “I’d hoped they’d learned better. I’d like to think humankind was done with this kind of thing. This is - let’s hope this is a possible future that never comes to pass.”

Not any kind of - fixed point.” He smiles weakly, hoping Jack will appreciate his little joke, and Jack does his best to smile back.

“Yeah.” He meets that gaze again, a little gruff this time around, but no less hopeful, no less desire to look forward, to see the best of what the universe can be, no less trust. Nothing less than a man he’d been in love with for - far too long now. He’s free, finally, and shakes out his wrists, cold and stiff from being pinned in the long, metal shackles from wrist to mid-forearm.

The ship around them is a sort of dull, slate blue; walls that curve just slightly are interrupted here and there by rivets. The few floor lights that exist give off a yellow glow, and the contrast is an odd combination of eerie and - boring. She wasn't wrong.

He watches the Doctor work on Missy’s shackles, and catches a glance between them that he’s probably not supposed to catch. It’s intense, and knowing, and furious and vulnerable all in one, and Jack has to look away.

He looks back when he sees a firm hand extended, and a fond, wry smirk greets Jack when he looks up.

“You know what I’m about to say.”

Jack meets those blue eyes again, somehow the same despite all the changes over the years. He knows what he _wants_ to hear, but that’s never been quite what he gets, is it?

The Doctor grabs his hand, and Jack takes it, enjoying the warm feel of it in his own. He flicks a glance down at it before grinning up at him, dimples fully engaged and damn the consequences.

“Let me guess. Run?”

“It’s only been a few hundred years, but you’re learning.” Their footsteps are clattering down the metal hallway, as alarms begin to sound, and the Doctor has to shout back at him over his shoulder. “Always did like a quick study!”

“Idiots,” Missy hisses as she pounds past them toward the escape pods. The look she shoots back over her shoulder is full of challenge, and they thunder down the hall, steps away from the patrol.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
